Hello again
Well, I’ve got my GP (General Practitioner) letter to add weight to our application to instal an air conditioning unit. All we need now is the site survey which is at the end of the month. Oh, and a form to fill in, asking permission to lower the ambient temperature in our home during heatwaves.
Yes, I’m writing about the same subject, Global Warming, but this time with the ideas and links we’ve gleaned from Ovesco, who paid us a home visit, and very helpful that was indeed.
One of the best links we were given was for a Heatwave Toolkit and I urge you to click on it and indeed print it out, so you have it to refer to, if you need help to live in a cooler place, what with all the days in the year that are excessively hot. So, to make this a much shorter blog than the last one, I am just setting out some of the headings in the Toolkit.
The Solutions are:
- Stop the Sun
- Let cool air flow
- Slow down (yourself)
1. STOP THE SUN
The most important point they put across is: stop the sun by shading windows from the outside. This is because pulling the curtains and lowering blinds indoors makes a very minor impact. Instead,
Shade your windows with a temporary covering e.g.
A trough of bamboo (non-invasive) plants in front of your window. Actually not in the leaflet, but seen elsewhere
A large pot with a tree in front of your window. Same as above
Use a half parasol in front of your downstairs windows – probably the easiest, quickest and most temporary solution especially for people living on the ground floor (and leaseholders and renters)
Rig up a sheet, towel or even a curtain over the window. Sew tags on the ends top and bottom and attach to small hooks
Or rig up a Solar Sail – description in the Toolkit
Put up an external Solar Screen that fits your window – there’s a link to a French manufacturer that makes these
Use Bamboo Blinds on the outside of your window – these are easily found in the UK
Fix detachable Awnings to your Sash Windows
And for more permanent solutions – there are many permanent blinds and shutters available – links to these in the leaflet.
2. LET COOL AIR FLOW
Open and Close Your Windows at the Right Time. When it’s cooler outside than in.
Get a desk fan and direct the airflow at your body. I’ve got one of those and they are amazing.
Get that Cool Night Time Air into your house by positioning a fan in front of your open window
Install a ceiling fan.
Buy air conditioning. If you take up any of the above, the unit will not have to work so hard.
3. SLOW DOWN
Use less energy – cook with the microwave during hot weather
Drink Plenty of Water
Choose the Best Time to Leave the House
Take a Cool Shower – use a low-flow head if possible
Use a Cold Flannel or Muslin Cloth. Put this around your neck – I found this very cooling when we had to go out in the midday sun
Outside use an old-fashioned fan rather than one of those electric one. The old-fashioned fan really works!
Summary
Obviously good insulation is a must. Ours, for example, must be good as during the winter the central heating is used very sparingly – a couple of hours in the morning and the same in the evening. And on a sunny day in the winter our big south-facing window fills our sitting-room with light and heat. We have never lived in a place that needed so little heating in the winter.
But. In the summer that big window positively sizzles with the heat of the sun hitting it from 9.0ish to 4.0pm in the afternoon. All the research says: STOP THE HEAT GETTING IN.
So to sum it all up
- STOP THAT HEAT GETTING IN
- REMOVE STORED HEAT WITH OUTSIDE AIR WHEN COOLER
- USE AIR MOVEMENT WITH FANS TO HELP YOU COPE
- ADD ACTIVE COOLING – USE AIR CONDITIONING WHEN NECESSARY
One source notes that the biggest difference came from combining measures, not from one solution. Furthermore, external shading makes a huge impact. And that dear readers is exactly what we are going to do; combine measures and, definitely, put in some (temporary and removable) external shading.
For readers of this living in the UK, remember there are many Climate Hubs dotted around the country. Link here for the map of these hubs. Do contact your nearest hub for more information.
I am sure some of you have experienced excess heat during your summer months, maybe over many years, and have done something about it. Do share if you think I’ve missed a way to cool a house down during the heat of the summer. Always remember that air conditioning for the UK is a novelty, but is probably going to be needed here more and more. Do tell us what else, besides air conditioning, you do to keep your cool during the hot weather?
I’m sure I shall return to this subject again and again but that’s all for now.
Penny Kocher, 15 September 2026
A very interesting blog Penny. Over the last few years my husband and I have been adding ‘climate change’ features to our bungalow due to concerns with overheating.
We live in an L-shaped flat roofed bungalow which has floor to ceiling glass in every room except the kitchen. Also along one side of the ‘L’ there is a corridor leading to the bedrooms that has a glass roof – so you can see we could have problems! Five years ago we had to have the skylights replaced so we had heat reflecting glass put in. This year on the very hottest days the temperature in the corridor never got above 33. In the past we’ve had nearly 40! So technology helps.
Several years ago we built pergolas outside the bedrooms and some of these have vines on which provide considerable shade in summer. On those without planting we have rolled out rattan shading which also helps a lot.
Two years ago we had ‘honeycomb’ blinds, which are insulating, installed inside all the bedroom windows and they are amazing in both winter and summer. Last year we added these type of blinds to the living room and the difference they made to the temperature this year was incredible. We had so many people come in and say ‘wow isn’t it cool in here’!
However our kitchen looks west and gets all the afternoon sun. So this year we put up a very large garden umbrella outside and that helped, but we definitely will be getting another pergola built there.
For so many years we’ve been making sure we were warm in the winter but now it’s completely reversed! I must say in winter the solar gain from all the glass is very helpful.
I so agree with you about outside shutters. I think we need a new approach in house design to incorporate shutters, larger overhanging eaves or verandas. After all if you look at houses designed for shade and cool in the time before a/c – think colonial style bungalows in India, Far East, US southern states …there were some answers there. If we were to combine good design with efficient technology then surely the answers are already here?
Kathy, what a great comment as I’ve learnt about honeycomb blinds which I shall definitely think about. You are obviously very forward thinking and that’s what we all have to be now. We are still pursuing the version of air con that is quite reasonable price, and then next year we will fix some removable hooks on our windows and put up a material (haven’t quite decided what that will be) to block out the sun on the south-facing sitting room window.
I agree it used to be all about keeping warm but these days we have to think completely differently. Housing design has to change – with inward closing windows for starters so one can fix up shutters that block out the sun. Many countries in Europe have been doing this for centuries. We will have to do the same.
Thanks so much Kathy – it was such an interesting comment 🙂
I clicked on the toolkit and was so surprised to see that covering the windows on the outside was more effective. Of course, that makes sense because the heat is coming in and radiating off/through whatever covering you’ve got. Are you going to give the yoghurt painting a try? My goodness, that would take a lot of yoghurt and be a mess, but it could be fun! I was surprised to read it didn’t attract insects. We are still in the high 80s (32C) this week. The nights have been cool, but we also have the humidity to deal with. Also, it’s not exactly the safest place to live. At our last neighborhood, some thieves actually cut the screens to gain access to a house. They were caught on camera, and one had a gun! Luckily, no one heard them and came downstairs. It would have been quite awful, I’m sure, if they had. Good luck with the AC.
https://marshainthemiddle.com/
Painting windows with yoghurt! Sounds a bit silly. But windows used to get whitewashed with something when there’s a lot of building works in and around. Don’t see that much now.
The Europeans have been blocking the sun from their houses for centuries. Most of the housing in Europe is designed to keep the heat out and air conditioning is not really a thing. I believe there is about 20% take-up of AC, more than the UK at 5%, but far less than the States at 90%. The older European houses are also built with thick walls, windows are small and outside shutters used as the norm. In the hottest European countries they split their working day and don’t work for several hours in the middle of the day. I experienced that in Switzerland when I worked there as a nurse. Patients too were expected to have a siesta and the ward was very quiet with far fewer staff. And then you’d come back to work and everything was back to normal in the late afternoon and evening. People also eat their main meal much later. We will have to go that way.
Oof, high 80s, that’s too much for me! And I expect you’ve had it much hotter. Thanks so much Marsha for the comment 🙂
I am lucky in that I have two trees which shade the front of my house so that it stays cooler longer and I can cut down on my AC use. As it is attached to another unit on either side it makes heating it a bit less expensive in the winter. Interestingly, many older houses do have shutters on the outside windows but I have never seen them actually being used. They are only for decoration only and newer homes don’t even have them. And homes being remodeled remove them. It has been seasonable here for the last part of the summer, and the mornings are cool.
It is so interesting that Central Europe gets as hot as the States but doesn’t do air conditioning in the way that the States does. Instead all the old housing had thick stone walls, small windows, tiled floors and above all real shutters to keep out the heat. Can’t speak for the newer housing.
How lovely to have the two trees – it must be such a boon and the way to go as it’s so natural.
We’re having lovely weather at the moment. We are on holiday in my happy place!
Thanks Darby
An interesting post. I had written something a few days ago but it never showed up. Probably pressed the wrong button. I am lucky in that my home is shaded by two trees and so I can reduce my use of he AC. Many older homes have shutters but purely decorative, I have never seen any of them closed in my life. The New York Times did a whole series of articles today on climate change . No surprise ,we are in for more extreme ,severe weather, floods, storms and killing heat. What was once unusual will become the norm, but didn’t we know this. Actually, the last weeks here in New York has been mostly pleasant.
Hi again Darby. You did nothing wrong. On this blog I approve all comments as occasionally I get a rather obnoxious comment and don’t want it on the blog. And I’m in Dungeness, my happy place.
It’s good to hear about the New York Times and that there are alternative views to the rubbish coming from the ‘orange’ one. Unfortunately our media even the best of the media (thinking of newspapers and the news on television) is so obsessed with, you know who, we hear little of the alternative and sane views. That’s why I shop around for podcasts and YouTube clips of the more liberal viewpoint.
Best wishes Darby and thanks for the comments.